Uncharted 4: A Thief's End [PS4]

[Shifty Geezer]

We've come to a period of diminishing returns. Games aren't going to look much better on the new consoles than the old.

Although admittedly, that U1 shot was running on freaky-Cell and clunky-RSX. The progress from U1 prerelease promo ro LoU is remarkable.

 

[AlNom]

Is that a friendship bracelet? And... a cuff for the insane asylum?

 

[djskribbles]

Even the difference from pre-release Uncharted 1 to Uncharted 1 was pretty big IMO. Or am I remembering wrong? I remembered Uncharted looking much better than that.

 

[Phil]

I'd also argue that the PS3 will have endured a much higher learning curve, that the PS4 won't have to that degree. Which is also good for us; it means that we'll have a much higher quality of games on average.

 

[DieH@rd]

Even the difference from pre-release Uncharted 1 to Uncharted 1 was pretty big IMO. Or am I remembering wrong? I remembered Uncharted looking much better than that.

 

[Prophecy2k]

Why is "not much better than 3D support" not good enough?

Uncharted 3 had 3D support, so it's only logical that they're aiming to keep that in their next title.
If you have a 3D capable TV set, you get 3D. If you have Morpheus, you can use it instead. At the very least, you get good quality 3D with Morpheus, even if it doesn't use head detection.

Alot of VR fans and followers online would argue that that kind of "shoehorning" VR into traditional non-VR games would effectively kill all interest in VR technology.

Spoiler

I personally think that for a third person action game like Uncharted, being able to be a floating head in Drake's world, following him closely behind him as he slinks around the world on his adventures,

Spoiler

seeing down the sights of his gun as he aims at a baddie, and being so close as to smell his protruding ass as he climbs over a waist-high-wall,

would be the perfect demonstration for effective VR technology in non-first person games. I think it would rock so hard.

 

[London Geezer]

Alot of VR fans and followers online would argue that that kind of "shoehorning" VR into traditional non-VR games would effectively kill all interest in VR technology.

Spoiler

I personally think that for a third person action game like Uncharted, being able to be a floating head in Drake's world, following him closely behind him as he slinks around the world on his adventures,

Spoiler

seeing down the sights of his gun as he aims at a baddie, and being so close as to smell his protruding ass as he climbs over a waist-high-wall,

would be the perfect demonstration for effective VR technology in non-first person games. I think it would rock so hard.

Well the problem is that VR has been done badly for decades now, only to meet failure after failure. Every effort should be made to do this one properly for one final time, or it will fail miserably too.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Well the problem is that VR has been done badly for decades now, only to meet failure after failure.

That was due to technologicaol limitations, like tablet computers taking a couple of decades until Apple could bring everything together and do it right. The tech is here now and just having a head-tracked, high refresh, stereoscopic window into a world, whether the protagonist or a virtual cameraman, is going to be intrinsically compelling. As long as there are VR specific experiences alongside conventional games 'shoe-horned' into VR, it should be good.

Personally, I think U4 in VR will be more appealing to most core gamers and PS4 owners than Street Luge, even if the latter is an ideal VR experience. I expect Street Luge to be a great party game experience, but have no legs and little replayability beyond the initial novelty. Of course, it may because we don't quite know how consumers will respond to VR, but U4's appeal is obvious to gamers and being more immersed can only make it more appealing.

 

[Prophecy2k]

Well the problem is that VR has been done badly for decades now, only to meet failure after failure. Every effort should be made to do this one properly for one final time, or it will fail miserably too.

I find this perception completely warped. There is nothing to say this is the final time at all. VR has always been considered as a technology that will be better in the future, and even now that the technology required to do it reasonably well (that didn't exist in the previous eras) still only really shows promise for areas outside of gaming and entertainment when computing technology gets a crap load more powerful and much cheaper than it currently is now.

Regardless of any present effort of Sony or Occulus or Valve, the requirements for EXCELLENT VR that will become super mainstream and revolutionise the way people fundamentally live, are faaar higher than what the average person can afford. So even if we wanted to do VR "properly" we couldn't.

The VR of the future will still eclipse the VR of today, and so unlike things like stereoscopic 3D displays (whose conceptual flaws have been long since understood), VR can be done today and bring meaningful benefits that even the most dense uninformed consumer will easily be able to appreciate.

Imho, Sony is doing the right thing by just bringing the technology to the market as quickly as they can. Occulus and Valve seem to want to drag their feet and wait for the technology to catch up to their inflated vision of the future that will ultimately forever be a moving target. For me, as long as VR is fundamentally researched and the major issues ironed out, which they currently are, these devices just need to get on the market, as i strongly believe that it will be Morpheus and its competitors that will continue to drive the console industry and AAA gaming going forward, justifying fixed HW in a world that has been moving increasingly to mobile.

 

[Prophecy2k]

That was due to technologicaol limitations, like tablet computers taking a couple of decades until Apple could bring everything together and do it right. The tech is here now and just having a head-tracked, high refresh, stereoscopic window into a world, whether the protagonist or a virtual cameraman, is going to be intrinsically compelling. As long as there are VR specific experiences alongside conventional games 'shoe-horned' into VR, it should be good.

Personally, I think U4 in VR will be more appealing to most core gamers and PS4 owners than Street Luge, even if the latter is an ideal VR experience. I expect Street Luge to be a great party game experience, but have no legs and little replayability beyond the initial novelty. Of course, it may because we don't quite know how consumers will respond to VR, but U4's appeal is obvious to gamers and being more immersed can only make it more appealing.

I absolutely agree with this. And I would say that there's very little reason that Evolution Studios can just patch in VR to driveclub later on down the line, as that should have been the first game developed with the technology in mind from Sony's studios imo. Driving games are perfect for it.

I also think that with online services, video game consumers will be blown away by VR, and will happy give up their couch-based social gaming experiences for online-based super imersive VR social gaming ones. I could so see COD:VR becoming a catalyst for VR ubiquity in the games industry.

And I think for people who can't afford the technology whilst it is still a bit expensive, I think something like VR amusement arcades could be a way for people to really enjoy VR gaming outside of their living rooms.

 

[London Geezer]

Sorry, my last post was a tad apocalyptic, in hindsight.

 

[tuna]

I absolutely agree with this. And I would say that there's very little reason that Evolution Studios can just patch in VR to driveclub later on down the line, as that should have been the first game developed with the technology in mind from Sony's studios imo. Driving games are perfect for it.

According to Sony you need 60 fps for VR to work so 30 fps DriveClub would not work.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

According to Sony you need 60 fps for VR to work so 30 fps DriveClub would not work.

True, but they could do a downsized VR version. The important thing is whether Sony support Morpheus with software or hang it out to dry. Given its importance, I think VR will have several major titles, unlike 3D's lacklustre support, and as such U4 is a candidate. That, IMO, explains the 60 fps target.

 

[Billy Idol]

I am not happy either about the 60fps thing. They should do 30 and go crazy...e.g. Introduce fully interactive environment (destruction).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

For all we know they have 100% environment destruction at 60 Hz...

Edit: that'd actually be quite a bad fit for Uncharted IMO. Terrain traversal could get broken with an NPC RPG and then where would you be? And if you have selective destruction, it could get confusing. Could possibly work, but it'd have to be fine tuned. It's safer to stick to the Uncharted formula which proved so popular (know obvious reason to change it) and turn all the dials up to 11.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

I am not happy either about the 60fps thing. They should do 30 and go crazy...e.g. Introduce fully interactive environment (destruction).

And introduce all kinds of possible game-breaking features, like Drake accidentally destroying that wall he had to climb after killing all the goons?

I for one will rather trust Naughty Dog's decision with going with 60fps, whatever the reasons might be.

 

[shredenvain]

I for one dont understand why they are shooting for 60fps.
Its begining to seem like it's all about the marketing.
I just dont see them being able to pull off all the characters at that high of detail level while having multiple enemies on screen in a detail rich enviroment at 1080p 60fps.
Something will have to be sacraficed. Whether it be Npc character quality or background detail or number of enemies on screen. I hope they can pull it off. I just dont see the necesity of 60 fps in this type of game.

 

[milk]

I personally think that for a third person action game like Uncharted, being able to be a floating head in Drake's world, following him closely behind him as he slinks around the world on his adventures,

Spoiler

seeing down the sights of his gun as he aims at a baddie, and being so close as to smell his protruding ass as he climbs over a waist-high-wall,

would be the perfect demonstration for effective VR technology in non-first person games. I think it would rock so hard.

Too bad developers who actually did try to do that with VR in a conventional 3rd person shooter said the disconfort generated by feeling like your head actually is inside the game world flying around all over the place, often clipping though scarry fast-moving and dangerounsly hard-looking terrain or akwardly close to this npc's face destroys both the VR immersion, and your ability to play the game.

You guys should give developers more credit. Naughty Dog isn't some naive 60fps fanatic who is willing to do anything to hit that speciffic bulletpoint, they proved that whit the 8 amazing 30fps titles they released on ps3 and ps1. They also proved they can infact improve on both graphics AND scope while doubling framerate, they did just that with Jack and Daxter going from ps1 to ps2. They are not scared of tradeoffs, they did a buch for every game and they are usually exceptional because they know what to focus on, and are not scared to tackle hard challanges if they think they are capable of doing so (even if with a lot of hard work and wizardry) and those are important for the game they chose to make.

60fps U3 video was a hint they had been looking into that already, and yet they thought other things were more important than perfect (for console standards) framerate. Now they have more horsepower at their disposal, and found more room for extra improvements, and they did not chose their priorities arbitrarely, that's not how any AAA dev operates.

 

[TEEDA]

If some people haven't seen yet or just interested here's an interesting video of character modeling and facial animation and sublt details like pupil dilatation that ND has done in TLOU.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myZcUvU8YWc

 

[ultragpu]

Just curious, can anyone find any polygonal edges on Drake? I tried so hard to find them but to no prevail. Even a 120k Delsin has visible edges not to mention a meager 60-70k Drake.
So scenario one they are using adaptive tessellation which should explain the total smooth mesh. Number two, ND meant Joel's cutscene model which could be well over 50k, so more than twice of that could be plausible. No chance in hell can a 60k model be this smooth, can it?